Rum Cream

Doulton’s Shakespeare: A Tasting Note in 5 Acts
Act I scene 5

“Thus we play the fools with the time; and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds, and mock us.”
Henry IV, Part 2, Act II scene 2

I’m really struggling today. Last night I found out that a friend in New Orleans was murdered. So I find myself wallowing in this tea today. I picked this tea because rum is reminiscent of Hurricanes and I don’t have real alcohol on hand (that’d be a bad thing right now). Please keep in mind that a subjective tea review from me today is nearly impossible. And know that Falstaff came to mind because Jeremy had been a wonderful comedian and to me he died offstage. That’s where the similarities between Falstaff and my friend end. Jeremy was a wonderful father, husband, and friend.

Enter Falstaff stage right. I opened the packet and was hit by a truly heady mix of rum, coconut, and even strawberries. I thought it might be too arrogant of a tea, but the steeping calmed it down a bit. It lived up to its boasting.

The scent of the tea is decadent. The “cream flavors” come out (to me it seems like vanilla soy milk) and all the flavors really dance around in my mouth. I can’t tell what black tea it is, but my guess would be Ceylon because I catch that light sweetness on my tongue that I associate with that particular tea. I did two successful steeps and then added another teaspoon and steeped it again. Right now the cup smells like a light strawberry cake frosting. Bizarre, but true. The aftertaste is really pleasant and I find myself taking fewer sips so that I can appreciate it more. I plan on steeping the hell outta this one today and I do believe that it shall become a permanent tea in my cabinet. NE

I got my tiny order from The Tea Table today, and decided to dip into this one first. I had to be brave because in the bag it smelled… revolting. Almost barf-like. Seriously, it was horrifying! I am wondering if it was just the packaging, though the other teas I got don’t have a funky smell… nor do the dry leaves for this once they were in my little french press. Maybe it was just the smells from the flavoring trapped in there or something? Cause it only smelled like that when I first opened it. In any case, I’m glad I powered through because this is quite tasty!

Steeping, it smells like my beloved Tamarind Pop. Of course it doesn’t have any of the same flavors (or nearly as much complexity), so maybe it’s the rum part? It is a bit earthy and has that brown sugar-y taste going on, which I suppose was the association my brain made. The flavors seem odd (coconut, strawberry, rum, cream?!) but they work together well into a smooth and enjoyable cup. I got quite a bit of strawberry and a lot of cream, not so much coconut. The rum adds more of a buttery/malty background presence, it doesn’t really taste like actual rum. Not that I mind!

This is definitely tasty, especially after a nice light summer dinner of grilled chicken and rotini with pesto. It’s kind of rich and the flavoring is heavy: there’s a definite and distinct “black tea taste” but I’d be hard-pressed to pick up any of the individual tea notes. Sometimes, though, I’m really in the mood for a fruity, creamy, no-frills dessert-y tea!

Thanks to MadelineAlyce for this sample!

I read the reviews just now (after drinking it) and I can totally see how the ingredients remind me of Buttered Rum by DT. Sadly though, I did not enjoy this tea :(

Something about the smell, both dry and steeped, smelled off. It reminded me a bit or something I won’t mention, because I don’t want to turn other people off of this tea haha, but it was not a good sense memory! The taste had a rum flavour to it, that’s for sure, but I couldn’t shake the bad taste – almost sourness – so I gave the rest to the boyfriend. He enjoyed it!

Thanks for the sample though m going through my stage (finally) out of flavoured blacks being #1 and into the world of straight teas. Whoop! I have a lot to drink until then haha.

I got a sample of this tea awhile back but I’ve forgotten who it was from – so whoever you are, thanks for the tea!

The dry tea smells like a tasty combination of vanilla and butterscotch which I could sit and sniff all day. :D Interestingly the rum/butterscotch is very subtle in the tea itself; the dominant flavour is the cream with hints of coconut. I’ve been drinking it with milk so that might be skewing the flavours a bit, but I would have maybe liked a bit more of the rum to come through.

From the journal:
You can definitely smell and taste the rum flavor in this one. I remember quite liking it. And for a pseudo dessert flavor, this one was really good. It has been a while since I had some……I will queue it up for tomorrow!